Chapter 81

[ 819 words ]

Author’s POV

Though under the same sky, the weather contrasted sharply between cities. While rain poured in Lakewood City, Silverlake City glittered with stars.

Linda Taylor stumbled home past midnight, alcohol buzzing pleasantly in her veins. About 200 meters from her door, a suspicious figure lurked in the shadows. Emboldened by liquor, she charged forward. “Who the hell is that?”

The figure flinched violently and burst into tears, head buried in his hands.

Linda froze. Did I just make a grown man cry by yelling?

“Hey! Who are you? Why are you creeping around my door like some stalker?”

She shoved him roughly.

The man peeked at her through his fingers, his crying reduced to pathetic whimpers. “I… I’m looking for my wife.”

“Your wife? Your wife isn’t in our house, buddy!”

“But the taxi driver brought me here. This address.”

He fumbled in his jacket and produced a crumpled paper with the Taylor family address scrawled on it.

Linda squinted at it. “That’s weird. Who gave you this?”

“I stole it from my father’s study.”

“And who’s your father?”

“My dad is a nouveau riche.”

“Pff—”

Linda barely suppressed her laughter. Oh great. A complete idiot.

“Look, brother, wrong house. Your wife’s not here. Try somewhere else.”

She turned to leave, but he grabbed her arm desperately. “You’re lying! My wife lives here!”

Linda jerked away, disgust written across her face. “You’re insane. I said she’s NOT here. Leave now or I’m calling the police.”

The man dissolved into tears again, pulling out a six-inch photo from his pocket. He mumbled miserably, “Emilia… Emilia, where are you? Don’t you want your Leighton anymore…”

Emilia?

Linda snatched the photo from his hands. Her eyes nearly popped out of her skull. “SHE’S your wife?”

Leighton Lind nodded pathetically. “Yes.”

“You’re saying she’s your wife?” Linda couldn’t believe her luck.

“Yeah. My wife. My father bought her for me.”

Linda went silent, staring at the photo like it was a winning lottery ticket. The woman in the picture was unmistakably Emilia Taylor—that wolfless omega, that thorn in her side.

This fool could be her golden ticket to destroying Emilia’s marriage to Sebastian.

“Do you really want to see your wife?” Linda’s tone turned syrupy sweet.

“…Yes.”

Cunning flashed in her eyes. “Well then, I’ll take you to her right now.”

Linda checked Leighton into a nearby hotel and spent the next hour extracting his story. Though his words came out jumbled and intermittent, she pieced together the essentials.

“So your father, Richie Lind, spent a fortune buying Emilia to be your future wife? And when you both grew up, she’d belong to your family? Is that right?”

Leighton nodded dumbly. “Yes.”

So Emilia sold herself to this rich fool? For her mother’s pathetic relatives?

A vicious smile curled Linda’s lips. How noble. How tragically stupid.

What a waste! If only she’d discovered this little secret earlier, she wouldn’t have needed to seduce Brandon and ruin her own reputation just to separate him from Emilia.

But it wasn’t too late. Not at all.

Linda shot to her feet, barely containing her glee. “Your timing is perfect. You know what? Emilia is absolutely perfect for you. No one suits her better!”

*I’m going to make that bitch pay double for every humiliation I’ve suffered.*

“Where’s my wife? You said you’d take me to her.”

Linda’s smile vanished. “Patience. She’s on a business trip. She’ll be back tomorrow. Sleep here tonight. I promise I’ll take you to her tomorrow.”

Leighton scratched his head uncertainly. “…Okay.”

The moment Linda burst through her front door, she beelined for her mother’s bedroom. “Mom! MOM! Wake up! I have the MOST AMAZING news!”

Dorothy Ryles cracked one eye open. “What is it? Tell me tomorrow. I’m exhausted.”

“No way. If I don’t tell you now, I won’t sleep all night!”

She launched into the story of meeting Leighton Lind. By the end, Dorothy was wide awake, sitting bolt upright. “Are you serious?”

“One hundred percent! Mom, this is our chance to flip the script. Once we expose this secret, Emilia’s marriage to Sebastian becomes outright fraud. Let’s see if she has the nerve to stay in the Simons family then!”

Linda paced excitedly. “The second Sebastian kicks her out, we can humiliate her as much as we want. She’ll never set foot in a decent house again! We’ll spread this scandal across all of Silverlake City. She’ll be ruined!”

Dorothy’s expression suddenly turned cautious. “Wait. No. You can’t go directly to the Simons family with this.”

“Why not?”

“Don’t forget—your father and I helped arrange Emilia’s marriage to Sebastian. If you expose this, Sebastian might blame us too. We need to be smart about this.”

Linda deflated slightly but nodded. Her mother had a point.

After three hours of scheming, they finally settled on a plan: they’d summon Emilia and force her to retreat on her own terms.

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